Fan-Writing Wiki:Policies and Guidelines
These rules are written to ensure you have an enjoyable and safe experience here on Fan-Writing Wiki! And despite the wiki's title, your stories don't need to be FanFiction - any genre will do! Works of Literature: Reading, writing, and critiquing various pieces are the main draws of this wiki. You have no limit as to how many stories you can write, how mature the content can be (this wiki is not responsible for any mature content that our readers may be exposed to), or how long the stories can be. However, you must also take the following rules and guidelines into account. Formatting your work: #Always write down your username near the title to identify who wrote the story. #If you write any sequels to your stories, you must provide links to them near the top of the first one. #Always provide a list of stories you have typed here on your userpage. Make sure your titles provide links to them, and for each piece, type whether or not it is complete. #Images can be added to your stories if you'd like. But there is a limit on that: If a part of your story has graphic content, please don't illustrate those parts. In addition, if your story has mature content, you must write that at the top of the page to notify users who wish to read it. #If multiple stories happen to share the same title, authors must put their usernames in parentheses, when providing a link to it. This procedure must be done to prevent confusion. #Articles can be created for the characters of your stories, but if two characters happen to share the same name, then each article must have the name of the story in parenthesis in its title to avoid confusion. Also, only characters can get their own pages; no locations, objects, or anything else. Other policies: The following are the general Dos and Don'ts of this site. All offenses listed here will be met with a warning (unless an account is created solely to cause trouble, which is promptly met with an infinite block), followed by finite blocks for repeated misconduct. Permanent bans are also used against accounts with unacceptable (offensive, vulgar, incomprehensible, non-English, or excessively long) usernames and for users that have been blocked many times and are deemed "lost causes" as a result. #Do NOT vandalize other users' stories! Vandalism can be either completely blanking another writer's story, replacing its contents with something else, or adding nonsensical fluff to it. As a note to all users, you're welcome to ask an admin for your stories to be protected if you are worried about vandalism. #Do NOT use the comments to troll the writers here! Comments can be posted to compliment or criticize stories; people do learn from feedback after all. Comments can be used for this, but no personal attacks are allowed. It is also unacceptable to use the comments section to discuss irrelevant topics. #It is known cross-wiki that some users have multiple accounts. Using multiple accounts here is acceptable, as long as you let us know who you really are. However, if the user behind the group of accounts receives a block, usage of the other accounts to evade the ban is prohibited, and will result in a ban for the others as well. Also, if one of them receives a permaban, then the other accounts are not welcome here either. That said, if an account gets perma'd for having an inappropriate username, then the others can still edit as normal. #Unless given permission by the author, do NOT edit the works of other writers. While you are allowed to write collaborative pieces with other users, editing their work without asking can cause unnecessary drama and be mistaken as vandalism. If you see so much as a minor spelling/grammar error on someone else's work, simply notify them about it instead. #Do NOT advertise external sites. Spamming irrelevant links in completely unrelated articles, comment-sections, and message walls takes up unnecessary space and causes meaningless disruption, while also having the potential to lead to malware sites. If you want to advertise your wiki, there are far better ways to do so, and those methods don't involve causing a ruckus about it here. Reviewing Other Stories: Users can write up and read reviews about other people's stories. They must provide a list of stories they have reviewed on their userpages, and must add their reviews to the list seen here. When writing the reviews, do not troll the writers, and do not write as if you are talking to the writer, as it adds pressure. Always write it from your opinion only; do not review a story based on what a group of people think. If desired, you can make an additional review for a story, if your opinions change, or you can just simply revise your old one. Adopting Stories: Here on the Fan-Writing Wiki, there is always a possibility where a writer here may lose interest in continuing their story, or may want to put an end to the constant demands for them to finish it by other users. Whatever the reason, any writer who wants to give up their writing pieces should go here and apply for the story to be adopted. Fan-Writing Wiki's Critiquing Service: Here on Fan-Writing Wiki, a handful of our established users have chosen to dedicate some of their time here to critiquing the newest works of our authors. Though we already allow anyone to review stories as they please, we put this system in place as well, so you'll never need to worry about putting up a new story and getting little to no feedback, and are guaranteed to have your work reviewed. Reviewing newly-completed stories is not the only job of these volunteers, though. They are also responsible for using their best judgement to apply subject-to-change content ratings to new stories (making this the only exception to the "don't edit the work of other writers" rule) and listing the specific types of content that the story contains, in order to warn readers. Like the rest of Wikia, this site allows anyone of ages 13+ to edit here, and it's imperative that we let our younger users know what they're about to read before they read it. Of course there's a chance that they won't listen and read the stories anyway, but at least we warned them, right? Ratings include: * E (Everyone) - Content is suitable for all ages. * E10+ (Everyone 10 and up) - Content is suitable for general audiences, but is slightly edgier (e.g. violent scenes that don't end with injury). * T (Teen) - Content is suitable for ages 13+. Apply this rating to writing that contains non-extreme amounts of violence, adult themes, and language. * M (Mature) - Content is suitable for ages 16+, and is more violent, sexual, and foul-mouthed than T-Rated content (though the former two are still non-explicit). * AO (Adults Only) - Content is suitable for mature adults. For pieces that contain explicit sexual content and violence. NOTE: Some stories may be marked with two ratings separated by a slash. This option is used for stories that are deserving of a certain rating, but partially deserving of a higher one (e.g. a story can be rated T/M). Want to get in on the action too? You don't need to go through a complicated on-wiki process! Simply sign your name under a certain heading on the Story Reviews page, and a member will remove it, before notifying you on your Message Wall that they did so. After that, frequently check the list of unrated and unreviewed stories and pick any of them to critique and apply content ratings to. New stories are completed all the time, so don't miss out! Current Members of the Service: * Chatroom Rules: This wiki's chatroom is a place where people can talk in real time with other users. It is also the only place where discussion can range to topics that do not pertain to the Wiki. As far as rules go, it's just like the Wiki itself. Don't troll, don't spam, don't evade your ban, and always listen to the admins. However, unlike most other chatrooms, mature topics are allowed, due to them not being forbidden on the Wiki. Despite this, a moderator can still choose to ban a topic from the chatroom if discussions about it get too far out of hand. The chatroom can also be thought of as a separate place from the Wiki. Whatever happens on the wiki will not affect your record on the chat, and vice versa. (e.g. Even if you are permabanned on one, you are still welcome to go on the other). However, dragging drama from either one onto the other can result in a block on both. NOTE: An exception to this is asking a mod about your chatroom ban while making sure to STAY CIVIL! List of Chat Moderators: *Pastrami on Rye (founder) Admin Guidelines: Administrators here are expected to comply with all the rules listed here, though they can also use their unique tools for the Wiki's benefit. The guidelines for using these privileges are listed below: #When blocking a user, the block can be as long as you see fit. After the block is issued, expect the possibility of it being changed. Other admins are welcome to change the block length at will. That said, only you can completely remove the block. #Another rule concerning blocks is that you should always base blocks on the offense that the user commits rather than their block history. (e.g. Even if a user has been banned multiple times for the same offense and then commits a different one, give them a shorter block than their last one). #The first and second guidelines will also come into play on the chatroom. All admins on the Wiki will automatically become moderators. Like with wiki blocks, any chatroom bans you may deliver can be shortened or even extended at will, but only you can lift it. As a general rule of thumb, if banning a user who is currently blocked from the Wiki, make the ban so it will end on the same day as the Wiki block, (unless the wiki block is permanent). #Despite your position, you are not kings. You cannot protect a page for the heck of it, you cannot rollback good-faith edits, and you cannot block users for minor offenses. Abuse of these powers will result in them being lowered by a little bit for each violation of this rule. (e.g. Bureaucrat gets demoted to standard admin upon abuse, and so on). Once completely brought down, the bureaucrat who demoted you can either set an expiry time for when you cannot use your power, or force you to apply for rights if you wish to get them back. For rollbackers, only guideline 4 is relevant, but there are some other things worth noting here: #Since Rollbackers are only above normal users by one position, rights will be removed completely should they be abused. #Rollbackers will have to earn themselves chat mod powers separately from rollback as opposed to admins, as they will not automatically gain the rights upon gaining rollback. List of Bureaucrats: *Pastrami on Rye (founder) List of Administrators: * List of Rollbackers: * Conclusion: Aside from all of the above, please enjoy writing masterpieces here at the Fan-Writing Wiki!